NOTD - Grey, Pink and Mint Green Nail Art (DIY Gel Manicure)

No Flash - indoors

Sorry for the super long heading - I couldn't think of anything imaginative.  My brain is fried from all the nail art I have been pinning on Pinterest!

Decided to put some of it into practice - very basic I know, but I found some nail art tools I purchased from ebay around 5 years ago and finally opened the package!  I used the dotting tool only and found there was even a knack to that!

Looking forward to perfecting some other skills.

With Flash - indoors

I really struggled to find colours that I could use to copy so many of the pretty looks I'd found.  Moral of the story - I need to purchase fewer dark colours and increase my collection of gold, silver and pastel gel polishes!  Such a difficult task for a girl!

Can't wait!

Anyway, The colours used are Mint Shellac - St Petersburg as the base (I've got to be honest, this chips really easily so I am not holding out much hope of it lasting), Gelish - You're So Sweet You Give Me Toothache as the light pink dots on my thumb nail, Red Carpet Manicure - Parisian Chic and Mint Shellac - San Diego.

Love a good manicure.  Here's hoping that it will last!

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Blue Yonder - Sensationail Gel Polish - At Home Gel Manicure

And my new favourite colour is...

Blue Yonder Sensationail Gel Nail Polish £10

(I paid £15 for mine in Boots.  Delivery is £3 unless order over £25)

As you all no doubt know by now I am obsessed with Gel Nail Polish.  I absolutely love adding to my collection and now do my own Gel Nail Polish Manicure at home. 

I have three Sensationail colours now (pink chiffon and coral sunset are the others) and I absolutely love them.

As with all at home gel polishes, I find I have to redo them in around 7 days but I am hard on my nails, an excessive typer and cleaner, and I love a change within that time anyway!  It's super easy to apply also. 

I absolutely love this colour and have been getting nothing but compliments all day. 

Next colour is going to be Sugar Plum I think!!

  

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Rockstar Shellac - Christmas Nails!

Tis the season...  For amazing nails!

Shellac Rockstar Nails

(For videos see here.)

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Mint Shellac - Shade St Petersburg

Most of you will  now know that I am partial to a gel polish.  It started with Shellac manicures every two weeks until I moved and purchased my own at home kit because to continue getting them done in Manchester would bankrupt me!

I have now used Shellac, Gelish, Red Carpet Manicure and Sensationail.  Shellac is still my favourite, but I am not trained so I can't really get hold of that.  So generally I use red carpet manicure and the lamp I had also is red carpet manicure.

Last week I spotted a new brand I had not heard of at the clothes show.  Namely, Mint Shellac.  They seem to be pretty new on the scene and their products definitely look to copy Shellacs.  They even have a Mint Shellac Solar Oil!! As far as I know though they are not in any way affiliated with Shellac.  Cheeky!

Anyway, they were offering manicures and had quite a wide range of colours and accessories so I was pretty interested.  In the end I managed to pick up four colours and a lamp for a real bargain.  Things were reduced but normally colours are £10.99 and the lamps are £69.99.

I picked up the lamp because it is a UV one (mine is presently a LED one) and I can fit in the whole of my hand (not just four fingers like my LED one).

The colours I got are St Petersburg (grey), San Diego (pink), Ciaro (nude) and Monaco (deep red) and I can't wait to try them all but for now I have tried the grey and I love it.

Having tried both the polish and the lamp I am so impressed!  The colour is deep and so you only need two coats, with my red carpet manicure and sensationail the colours are always quite sheer even after a couple coats.  It applies easily and cures well.  I think that's partly due to having a lamp that all of my hand can fit in too as the lights aren't just based at the top, so the sides of the nail get cured too.

Here's the result...

Shiny shiny!

Definitely going to be buying more of these.

You can our base them here.

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How to Remove Shellac, Gelish, Red Carpet Manicure, Sensationail and any other Gel Polish!

Removing Shellac/Gelish/Redcarpet Manicure

Like me, a lot of you will probably have gel polish manicures, or at least give them a try.  What you might not always be able to do it get to a salon to remove them.  I have found that if one chips, or the grow out is a bit too much, I just want it off straight away as it looks too scruffy for me.  Also, fitting in salon appointments can be pretty inconvenient when you have lots of other things to do, especially in the busy lead up to xmas.

So I thought I would give you a quick run down of how I remove my gel polish at home, without the need to go to a salon and pay for the service!

1. Get your Acetone ready (you can pick this up at boots for like £3)

2. Cut up tinfoil and kitchen roll, or cotton wool - your choice and have a nail file handy

3. File the posh gently to take off the top shine (not necessary but apparently makes it quicker)

4. Put some acetone on the kitchen roll and place it on top of your nail

5. Then wrap the nail and kitchen roll in tinfoil ensuring that the foil is wrapped around tightly

6. Repeat for all nails and leave on for 10 - 15 minutes.

7.  Remove from nails and your nails should be clean, if not gently remove the rest with an orange stick (as long as you don't need to scrape - if you do - you need to soak for longer!)

End result is...

Nice gel polish free clean nails!

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Red Carpet Manicure Professional LED Starter Kit Review

Red Carpet Manicure - Professional Starter Kit £89.95 (buy here)

Shimmery Silhouette £12.95 (buy here)

I've been so excited to share this with you all as it is definitely my best purchase of the year!!

Most of you will know that I am obsessed with Shellac and if you don't - well check my previous Shellac posts here...  Like I said, obsessed.

Now, I have been fortunate enough to have a fab nail technician who is really cheap and does such an amazing job in my home town.  Unfortunately though, with me moving to Manchester for good soon, it means I will no longer be able to keep getting my nails done with her.  

What is worse is that the cost of Shellac manicures in Manchester doubles!! So I will be paying minimum £60 per month for my nails.  Now I just cannot justify that.  There are so many other things I would prefer to spend my money on. 

And after my most recent manicure experience which was in Manchester and did cost £30 and was RUBBISH I really cannot bear the thought. 

So with that in mind I decided to search for an at home kit.  Ideally, I would love to have tried Gelish or Shellac but these are really expensive and only available to the pro's in the uk.  Gelish is available to people at home from Sallys in the US though. 

So after having carried out some research I decided to take the plunge and go for the Professional Red Carpet Manicure Starter Kit.  

Firstly, can I just say I was so impressed with their service!! It turned up the next day and postage was free!! Amazing - especially because when you order online the excitement can be to much to bear when waiting for delivery!

What's in the box?

Professional LED Light (with timer function)

PURIFY Pre & Post Application Cleanser (59ml)

PREP Max Adhesion Sanitizer (9ml)

STRUCTURE Base Coat Gel (9ml)

BRILLIANCE Seal & Shine Top Coat Gel (9ml)

ERASE Gel Nail Polish Remover (59ml)

REVITALIZE Nourishing Cuticle Oil

LED Gel Polish (9ml) in Red Carpet Reddy

How does it work?

Basically, you apply polish and cure it under the LED light. 

Specifically it works like this...

After prepping the nail details of which can be found here, you carry out the following steps.

Step One:  apply base gel coat and cure for 30 seconds 

(I did 45 because that's the timer setting of the lamp)

Step Two: apply gel polish of your choice and cure for 45 seconds

 (kit comes with a red but I ordered a lighter shade also as red isn't a colour I would normally wear)

Step Three: repeat step two again.

Step Four: apply top gel coat and cure 

( I did two rounds of 45 seconds just to be on safe side)

Step Five: remove tacky layer with alcohol rub provided and voila!  Nails are ready to go!

Results - See below...

I absolutely love this system, I found it really easy and hope that it last as well as my shellac does.  I will keep you posted.  I like the colour but I don't think you get the full high shine effect with shimmery shades of gel polish so I am going to place another order and get some darker colours but also a really girlie bright one for holiday! I will keep you posted as to how it wears!!

Definitely recommend this - I seriously think I have found my new obsession and cannot wait to build my collection!! Best purchase ever!

Buy it here!

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